TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI - Paul Thorn had recorded 14 albums before his performance at last year's Blues & Roots Fest at Door Community Auditorium in Fish Creek, usually slotted by music writers into the Southern roots-country blues-rock type of genres.

The 15th, released earlier this year, might seem to go in a different direction, but Thorn said it's where he's been from all along.

Thorn returns to DCA for this year's Blues & Roots Fest, playing the second and final concert of the event Friday, Nov. 2. He'll be there with his regular band, mostly playing the soulful roots sounds heard on those first 14 albums.

But Thorn's newest release, "Don't Let the Devil Ride," goes full gospel, covering songs originally sung by traditional — aka Southern African-American — gospel groups, perhaps similar to what DCA concert goers heard from Thorn last year, when he was joined by The McCrary Sisters for his Mission Temple Fireworks Revival tour.

The album includes a slowed-down, hopeful take on The O'Jays hit "Love Train" and features contributions from gospel legends Blind Boys of Alabama and The McCrary Sisters, as well as the horns of New Orleans mainstay Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

For the 54-year-old Thorn, the gospel album isn't an experiment but simply reflects his life, growing up as the son of a strict Pentacostal bishop and seeing and hearing the fire and brimstone in words and music from an African-American branch of his father's church, where he sang and played bass.

"I grew up singing gospel, my whole experience has been in gospel," Thorn said in a phone interview from his home in Tupelo, Mississippi — He was born in Kenosha but the family moved South when he was an infant. "After 14 records of secular music, I always wanted to do a record of gospel music before I died ... and I thought the time was right. And, I got some of the best to help me do it.

"It's a pretty special type of gospel music (on the album), the old-school type that isn't done any more. It's straight-up black gospel, is what it is."

Thorn said it was important to him to have the Blind Boys and the McCrarys be part of his album.

"I'm from Tupelo, where Elvis (Presley) was born," he said. "When Elvis would do a gospel album, he always picked the great gospel quartets of the day to sing on his records. That's what I wanted to do."

The album also was recorded at three notable locations: The Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis; FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, noted as the home of the horn-driven "Muscle Shoals sound"; and Preservation Hall on New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street. The sessions were video recorded for a PBS show, "Paul Thorn: The Making of ..."

"We wanted to cut this record where the studios had a great history, a great mojo, old-school equipment, to get that sound," Thorn said.

After so many years playing roots-rock, Thorn said it wasn't hard at all to transition to gospel sounds.

"It's such a part of who I am," he said. "Without my gospel experience, I probably wouldn't have become a musician."

His life experience includes more than gospel, although the influences were felt. That includes sneaking off to friends as a teenager to listen to his two LPs, by Elton John and Huey Lewis and the News, as well as the friends' hard rock albums.

"It was a strict kinda upbringing," Thorn said. "We weren't allowed to have rock music. I had to keep (the albums) hid in the closet. I was told it was the devil's music."

Thorn left home at age 18 after an argument with his father and worked on his music while working to make a living. That included a stint as a professional boxer in the late '80s, where he attained a respectable 10-3-1 record, ranking as high as No. 29 middleweight in the world, and fought hall of famer Roberto Duran among his four TV bouts.

But the experience helped move Thorn back to music, which he said he never gave up while pursuing boxing.

"After I took boxing as far as I could take it, I went back to music," he said.

Thorn said his Nov. 2 concert will include a few selections from the gospel album, although it'll mostly be the roots music that's comprised most of his career. And, he's not too worried how you label his sound.

"My music is a mix of the sacred and the profane. Nobody's all good and nobody's all bad. That's kinda the theme that runs through my music."

FYI

The Blues & Roots Fest concerts are at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 and 2 at Door Community Auditorium, 3926 State 42, Fish Creek. Phil Cook and the Music Maker Blues Revue play Nov. 1, and Paul Thorn plays Nov. 2. Tickets are $22 to $48 for each show, and advance purchases are recommended. For tickets or more information, go to the DCA box office, call 920-868-2728 or visit dcauditorium.org.